It's interesting to watch the tension at Microsoft.
The IE team has to embrace standards (HTML5/JS/CSS) as much as possible to be thought of as a serious competitor in the browser wars. (Since the browser is the new OS.)
The rest of MS has to push Silverlight as the way to build applications, or else Windows itself is endangered, if there's nothing Windows-specific about future app development. (Hoping the browser isn't the new OS.)
Seems like both Microsoft and Apple are trying to figure out where to go in the post-PC era. Apple's clearly betting on mobile (which is a good bet), but MS is tied to their Windows/Office/Exchange legacy, and falling behind horribly in mobile. (We'll see if Windows Phone 7 does anything for them.)
The IE team is part of the Windows division, Silverlight is part of Server & Tools. If anything IE is more about selling Windows than Silverlight is. Silverlight is cross-platform (Mac, Nokia) and is about selling ... servers and tools.
Comments
It's interesting to watch the tension at Microsoft.
The IE team has to embrace standards (HTML5/JS/CSS) as much as possible to be thought of as a serious competitor in the browser wars. (Since the browser is the new OS.)
The rest of MS has to push Silverlight as the way to build applications, or else Windows itself is endangered, if there's nothing Windows-specific about future app development. (Hoping the browser isn't the new OS.)
Seems like both Microsoft and Apple are trying to figure out where to go in the post-PC era. Apple's clearly betting on mobile (which is a good bet), but MS is tied to their Windows/Office/Exchange legacy, and falling behind horribly in mobile. (We'll see if Windows Phone 7 does anything for them.)
The IE team is part of the Windows division, Silverlight is part of Server & Tools. If anything IE is more about selling Windows than Silverlight is. Silverlight is cross-platform (Mac, Nokia) and is about selling ... servers and tools.
Then the tension is even more poignant, since making IE better makes Windows less relevant.
Not if they're aiming for "The best/fastest/most awesome browsing experience is IE9 on Windows! Buy Windows now!"
That would be a nice fate for Windows--"the best operating system for web browsing." ;-)